1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for maintaining an unoccupied vehicle at a more comfortable temperature relative to the outside temperature using both heating and cooling. The system uses an air duct with a fan, a heating element, vents, a solar panel, and other control elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
On warm or hot days with the sun up, a vehicle parked unoccupied in the sun will experience a greenhouse like heating effect that is much more uncomfortable for driver and passengers to tolerate when entering than if the vehicle was parked in the shade. Alternately, when the vehicle has been parked unoccupied on a cold night and/or day, the vehicle may be very uncomfortable for the driver and passengers to tolerate when entering.
In the prior art, systems for providing an unoccupied vehicle with a more comfortable temperature used systems for cooling and/or ventilating the vehicle using solar power and/or batteries as the power source and a fan for forcing the ventilation.
Exemplary references of this type are: U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,726 issued on Mar. 16, 1976 to John H. Miller; U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,457 issued on Feb. 12, 1985 to William Kreamer; U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,986 issued on Jul. 10, 1990 to Charles R. Turner; U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,806 issued on Jul. 24, 1990 to Feng-Lin Hwang; U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,448 issued on Sep. 4, 1990 to Gabri C. B. Duh; U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,203 issued on Sep. 11, 1990 to Shaam P. Sundhar; U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,455 issued on Aug. 20, 1991 to Shigetoshi Doi et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,081,912 issued on Jan. 21, 1992 to Alain J-M. Clent; U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,736 issued on Sep. 22, 1992 to William Juang et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,574 issued on Dec. 1, 1992 to Kazutoshi Ikeda et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,781 issued on Apr. 27, 1993 to Yoshihisa Kanno et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,782 issued on Apr. 27, 1993 to Shunji Ohba; U.S. Pat. No. 5,248,278 to issued on Sep. 28, 1993 to Arpad Fuerst et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,361 issued on Sep. 6, 1994 to Jan H. Matthias.
Other exemplary references of this type are: U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,660 issued on Jul. 18, 1995 to Shunji Ohba et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,909 issued on Dec. 31, 1996 to Shing-Lai Ferng; U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,076 issued on Jan. 4, 2000 to Charles D. Wink; U.S. Pat. No. 6,147,295 issued on Nov. 14, 2000 to Toshihiko Mimura et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,225 issued on Dec. 12, 2000 to Ikuo Muto et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,886 B1 issued on Feb. 13, 2001 to Robert B. Farrington et al.; U.S. U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,313 B1 issued on Mar. 13, 2001 to Yoshiro Nakamats; U.S. Pat. No. 6,225,705 B1 issued on May 1, 2001 to Yoshiro Nakamats; U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,562 B1 issued on Oct. 2, 2001 to Yukio Uemura et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,961 B1 issued on Aug. 20, 2002 to Michael R. Biancone; U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,658 B1 issued on Aug. 27, 2002 to Thomas Ganz et al.; Japan Patent Application Publication No. 1-114522 published in June, 1989; Great Britain Patent Application Publication No. 2,220,738 A published in January., 1990; Sweden Patent Application Publication No. 468,668 published in March., 1993; Germany Patent 4,437,209 published in August, 1995; Europe Patent Application Publication No. 1,024,038 published in August, 2000; Japan Patent Application Publication No. 2001-20646 A published in July, 2001; and German Patent 1 002 1807 published in November, 2001.
In the above prior art systems, no device was provided for adding extra heat to circulated air inside the vehicle to make the interior of the vehicle more comfortable to enter during cold weather.
In another prior art system shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,433,915 B2 issued on Aug. 13, 2002 to Ben F. Mounir, an unoccupied vehicle is maintained at a more comfortable temperature by providing a system using a complex film on the windows that changes state via electrical or temperature changes applied to the film, resulting in a change of color. The color changes serve to heat or cool the vehicle via reflection or absorption of sunlight. This prior art system implements a system to heat and cool the inside of the vehicle that is slow and which may not provide the amount of comfort level associated with the system in the present invention.
It would be desirable to have a system for maintaining an unoccupied vehicle at a more comfortable temperature by providing both heating and cooling using solar power and batteries as the power source and using an electric fan and a heater.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus, a solar powered heating and ventilation system for vehicle solving the aforementioned problems is desired.
The present invention is a solar powered heating and ventilation system for maintaining an unoccupied vehicle at a more comfortable temperature relative to the outside temperature using both heating and cooling, as appropriate.
The system uses an air duct having an electric fan, an electric heater, vents, a flap controller and flaps. The system also uses a solar power panel, battery, thermostat, clock/timer, selector switch, and power control circuitry. The system provides power to the electric fan and electric heater via a selector switch and power control circuitry. The thermostat is located near the beginning of the intake duct of the duct system of the vehicle for sensing the temperature of air from the interior of the passenger compartment and causing the power control circuitry to regulate the temperature. The clock/timer may be manually set to activate and/or deactivate the power control circuitry at predetermined times. The duct is located on the interior ceiling of the vehicle and has at least three vents. The fan and heater are located inside the duct. The first input vent is located on one side of the fan and heater at the front of the vehicle and the other two vents and flaps are located on the other side of the fan and heater at the rear of the vehicle. One of the other two vents opens to the interior of the vehicle. A second of the other two vents opens to the exterior of the vehicle above the rear window.
When there is a need to cool the interior of the vehicle due to the heat of the sun acting on the vehicle as if it were a greenhouse, air enters the duct through the first input vent pulled by the fan mounted in the duct to the second of the other two vents opening at the exterior of the vehicle so that hot air can exit. Flaps in the first of the other two vents are pushed or pulled closed to close off the exit of air back into the vehicle. When there is a need to heat the insides of the vehicle due the lack of sun and cold outside temperatures, the interior vehicle air enters the duct through the first input vent pulled by the fan and pushed past active heating elements in the duct with air exiting at the first of the other two vents on the inside of the vehicle. Flaps in the first of the other two vents are pushed to close off the exit of air to the outside of the vehicle at the second of the other two vents. Thus, air is forced over the active heater and circulated back into the vehicle to warm the air inside the vehicle.
During the heating of the interior of the vehicle, battery power may be the most used source of power since the sun may not always be available or adequate when temperatures are low. Since the heater and the fan are both used and the heater requires so much more power than the fan, a power control circuit is used to regulate the power to the fan and heater. The power control circuit will, based on the current draw from the heater and fan, decide whether to provide power from the solar cells or battery or both. Also, it will prevent the battery from discharging so much that the vehicle cannot be started. It will also cut off all power for the heater and fan if neither power source can provide enough power. Also, the battery used may be the vehicle battery, or an auxiliary battery that does not provide power to any other parts of the vehicle.
Accordingly, it is a principal aspect of the invention to provide a system for maintaining an unoccupied vehicle at a more comfortable temperature relative to the outside temperature using both heating and cooling as appropriate.
It is another aspect of the invention to provide a system for maintaining an unoccupied vehicle at a more comfortable temperature using solar power and battery as power sources.
It is a further aspect of the invention to provide a system for maintaining an unoccupied vehicle at a more comfortable temperature using solar power and battery as power sources and using a controller to regulate power to the heater and fan which also prevents damaging discharge of the battery.
Still another aspect of the invention is to provide a system for maintaining an unoccupied vehicle at a more comfortable temperature using a duct system with flaps and vents for providing circulation and heating of excessively cold air or exhaustion of excessively hot air inside the vehicle.
It is an aspect of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.